Is it possible to convey spirituality through art and material culture? Is it possible to renew art within the traditional church so that it appeals and is understandable for the modern man? These are the fundamental questions of my master´s work, which has it´s starting point in a public commission for an artistic contribution to the new Pentecostal church in Kalmar. The work also addresses the question whether there is a need for symbolism, art and sacred objects also within the Pentecostal movement, a traditionally strong image hosting environment. If so, how is it possible to bring this in to the church without completely breaking with the tradition and ideology of the movement? I want to communicate the Christian message in a renewed way, and in this particular project also highlight the importance of using images also within the Pentecostal movement.

The purpose of this study was to investigate what view of humans that emerges when priests/reverends talk about man in relation to baptism. The study consists of qualitative interviews with four priests/reverends. There were two representatives from the church of Sweden, and two from the Pentecostal church. The aim and questions in the study focus on what view of humans that emerges. Will there be similarities and differences in the view of humans, and is it possible to refer the result to the respective church.

The aim of this essay is to do a queer reading of the early Swedish Pentecostal movement, with a special focus on the women within the movement. The main empirical material is Gustaf Emil Söderholms Den svenska pingstväckelsens historia part I and II, published 1927 and 1928, in addition to this a selection of articles from the Swedish Pentecostal magazine Evangelii Härold has been used. The theoretical framework consists of Judith Butler's concepts of heterosexual matrix and performativity, as well as interpellation, and of Adrienne Rich's concept of a lesbian continuum. The analysis shows that the evangelist role, as well as the charismatic practices of the movement, made it possible for women to take the position as leader and teacher of congregations, and thereby take up a male subject position. The role as evangelist also made possible a life outside of the heterosexual norm, within the lesbian continuum..

A common phenomena in descriptions of Western mission initiatives to the South is theoverrepresentation of depictions of the missionaries and underrepresentation of theindigenous people. It is fair to say that there is a need for new perspectives. This thesisinvestigates the agency of the indigenous people in the Scandinavian Pentecostal mission inTanganyika 1932-1945. It highlights roles and areas of their participation which seldomoccur in western mission biographies, but were tanganyikan people played a crucial part,such as evangelisation, church planting and the forming of contextualized theology. ThePentecostal theology and mission praxis contributed to a large degree to shape that agency..

In this study, we looked at how balanced the various christian denominations in Sweden were raised in the news, on the basis of the requirement for balanced reporting. To measure the balance, we utilized Harcup and O'Neill?s news values and studied to what degree these values occurs in association with news articles that address the various denominations. The following denominations were selected for this study; Word of Life, the Pentecostal Church, Jehovah's witnesses, the Catholic Church, the Salvation Army and the Swedish Church. These denominations were then studied on the basis of news values in four of Sweden?s largest news organisations, in terms of audience numbers.

In January 2004 two members of the Pentecostal community Knutby Filadelfia in Uppsalamunicipality, Sweden, were shot by their fellow member Sara Svensson. With a qualitative hermeneutic case study as the principal method this essay takes on the task of not only investigating if and how Stockholm Syndrome can be used as a model for interpreting and understanding the violent incident in Knutby Filadelfia, but also to see if the unique characteristic of the Knutby incident can tell us something about Stockholm Syndrome as a model for understanding violence in religious movements. The material shows Stockholm Syndrome as having been present in Knutby because of among other things, a mileu, leadership and theology that supported the normalization of abuse and the enabling and maintaining of self punishment in the community. While Stockholm Syndrome still is a controversial theory this study shows that it can be used as a powerful tool in the understanding of violence in religious contexts..

The purpose of this thesis is to study how homosexuals and homosexuality were represented in the press during the trials against the Pentecostal pastor Åke Green, and to what kind of social representations and narratives these representations can be related.Using critical discourse analysis and theories about the differentiation between in- and outgroups I try to unveil implicit meanings and attitudes towards gay people mainly at the local text level. The material consists of articles in Ölandsbladet and Dagens Nyheter that were produced before, during and after the trials.The analysis suggests that homosexuals are construed as a deviant outgroup and that the majority, the ingroup, is presented as an essentially heterosexual, tolerant community. Homosexuality is wrong and heterosexuality is the right way of living. Homosexuals, in terms of group lobbyism, are construed as an enemy, a threat, against Western ideals such as family values and freedom of speech. They indirectly become a threat to Swedish democracy.

The aim of this study was to examine how social policy is created in a local context on the basis of the situation regarding the begging EU migrants in Kalmar, Sweden. The last few years the number of begging EU migrants has increased in Sweden. Most of them are Roma with a history of exclusion and discrimination. To reach our goal we interviewed three managers from the social Services representing the local authorities. We also did four interviews with people from three non-profit organizations in Kalmar.